


Christina: Vows

by slaysvamps



Series: Christina Strong Chronicles [11]
Category: World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Changeling: The Dreaming - Freeform, Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd Edition, F/M, Hunters Hunted, Mage: The Ascension - Freeform, Vampire: The Masquerade - Freeform, Werewolf: the Apocalypse - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 02:04:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20107390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slaysvamps/pseuds/slaysvamps
Summary: The happiest day of Christina's life is upon her, but a ghost from her past does his best to interfere.





	1. Nightmares

_Remember walking in the rain?_  
_I’m walking there still_  
_ Concrete Blonde - Days and Days  
_

I WOKE ONE night with memories dancing across the edges of my memories. I’d dreamed of Helena, of my mortal life, my friends and family. It was strange enough that I remembered what I’d dreamed of, but to actually remember the night I’d been dreaming of was more than strange. I could lay there in my bed in Salem and name several places in Helena that the four of us had hung out, Marcus Thorpe, Malcolm Robbins, Lizzy, and me. And this wasn’t the first dream I’d had of the four of them that I’d woken up remembering.

I felt such as sense of mourning from this dream, as if I’d lost not one but two of my best friends. For some reason, Malcolm’s rage toward me had cut to the bone. He wasn’t my boyfriend, he was Lizzy’s. What was he to me? And why had he seemed so familiar, as if I’d seen him since my embrace?

It was nearly six thirty and I didn’t have time to worry about my dream. I had to go to the chantry now or I’d be late, and I didn’t want to make Elvira angry with anything close to noncompliance with the schedule Micky had set up for me. Within minutes, Jason, Frasier and I were on our way.

When we got home an hour or so before dawn, I went upstairs and went to bed with Jason holding me tight. I hoped his arms would keep the nightmares away. They didn’t.

A few nights later I woke the moment the sun went down, dreams of Malcolm and my father still lingering in my mind.

I could feel Jason moving next to me, but I didn’t say anything. He switched on the bedside lamp and I lifted my left arm. There on my underside of my forearm was a scar, one that was the right size and shape to match the wound I’d taken in my dream. But it wasn’t really a dream, was it? It was a memory.

Malcolm hated me so much that he’d risked discovery to attack me. I shivered in the warmth of my bedroom, wondering just how far he’d taken his revenge.

For a moment the image of Lord Malcolm from Ramadan flashed through my mind, but I pushed it away. The two Malcolm’s couldn’t have been the same person, that was just too much of a coincidence to believe.

Perhaps I didn’t want to face the truth.

Memories continued returning to me over the course of the next few weeks. Many nights I woke with tears on my cheeks, and it was all I could do to hide them from Jason.

I dreamed of wearing Marcus’ jacket, of Malcolm taking a book of my brother’s that I’d found. I dreamed of a Malcolm Robbins who was a friend, a mentor, someone I trusted to teach me what I needed to know of the Verbena Tradition.

The memories had told me that I’d been a Verbena mage when I’d been mortal. Finally a concrete memory I could point to and say what I’d been before my embrace.

Most of the memories were ones I would have preferred to have left forgotten. Of course it didn’t matter what I wanted, I remembered it anyway. I remembered now how Malcolm had killed Marcus because Papa had murdered Lizzy.

The two guys really hadn’t been that close, but it was still a shock to me that Malcolm had killed Marcus. Granted, they weren’t exactly the closest friends, but they had gotten along well.

If this was what it was like to have memories, I could live without them.


	2. Lord Malcolm

_Love is the killer you thought_   
_Was your friend_   
_ Concrete Blonde - The Beast   
_

EARLY THE NIGHT we left for the Holding, I had an opportunity to talk to Cormac about my dreams. We discussed his experiences for a few minutes, about how they seemed to be prompted in some way by something he’d seen, or someone he’d talked to. I couldn’t figure out what was jogging my memories, but I did remember seeing a dress similar to the one I’d worn to Lizzy’s funeral one night when Brenda and I were out shopping.

He offered to take my duties for the rest of the night and because I was tired I accepted. I went back to the mansion where I sat alone in the living room with pictures that Robert had given me, and the one Cormac had sent to me from Ireland.

Would I ever remember what had become of Malcolm? Had he finally forgiven me, or had he hated me until I’d disappeared seven years ago? I also had to wonder if he’d killed anyone else I’d loved.

It made me sad just thinking about it. He’d been my mentor after all, my friend. We’d tried to save Lizzy together, how could he have blamed me for her death?

I wanted to call Papa and ask him about these things, but I’d promised Robert that I’d stay away from our father for a while longer. That was probably a good idea anyway. Knowing what I now knew about Papa’s part in Robert’s death, and my mother’s, it was likely that I’d want to kill him on site.

I leaned my head back on the chair and closed my eyes, hoping that if I just thought about it I could remember what had happened to Malcolm. The only thing it got me was a major headache. Eventually I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep like state.

My dreams were a mass of confused images, events I’d really lived and others so altered it was difficult to recognize them. Papa looking at me with hatred, his face morphing to Lord Malcolm’s horrifying visage. Dougal Galloway was in my dreams as well, holding Malcolm off before he too changed to another man, one I suspected had been in the room when I’d been embraced. Then Antonio was there, asking me what was wrong before I turned to see Marcus crawling out of a casket, blood dripping from elongated fangs.

I sat bolt upright in the chair with a scream on my lips, aware that I’d somehow drifted off. I couldn’t quite shake the memory of Marcus’s ashen face. When I closed my eyes, I could still hear him singing.

_You are a vampire and now I am nothing at all._

It was time for me to admit the truth, as horrible as it was. The Malcolm who had been my mentor and the Lord Malcolm who had caused Jason’s embrace and abducted Lena were one and the same.

I’d known him before my embrace, he’d been my mentor and my friend. Then it hit me; if Malcolm had hated me enough to kill Marcus, maybe Graves wasn’t the reason that Jason and Lena had been taken. Maybe I was the reason behind both horrifying ordeals.

Malcolm hated me and was still trying to pay me back for what Papa had done to Lizzy. It was my fault Jason was Kindred. It was my fault Lena had been taken from the holding to Ramadan. I had hated Graves for things that I had caused.

Suddenly it made sense that the Verbena had been following Luke, Lena and I through Europe and back into the States two years ago. Malcolm was Verbena and he had strong ties within the tradition, at least he had when I’d known him.

The song from my dreams kept running through my head and I couldn’t shake it. I knew the song, really knew it, but I couldn’t remember ever having heard it before. Still, when Malcolm had sung it in the park I’d known the words, known what the next line was going to be.

I needed to get it out of my head. I needed blood and a good long walk to clear my mind. Then it hit me what the song was. Bloodletting, by Concrete Blonde. The Vampire Song.

_I’m gonna have a drink and walk around/I’ve got a lot to think about._

It seemed like too much for me to take in all at once. Malcolm was Lord Malcolm and I’d known him before my embrace. I’d known him and he hated me enough to want me dead, to attack me on the street, to kill my boyfriend.

The sound of the door closing and Jason’s voice startled me back to reality. We were supposed to leave for the holding at dawn and I still had to make sure that everything was packed and ready to go.

But if I closed my eyes I could still see Marcus lying there, his head laying at just enough of a wrong angle for his broken neck to be obvious.

“What’s wrong?” Jason asked from the doorway.

I tried to smile. “Bad dreams,” I told him. I wasn’t ready to talk about this with him, not yet. “I really don’t want to talk about it,” I added as I stood up and walked over to him.

“Why not?” He put his arms around me and held me close.

“It was just a nightmare.” It definitely had been that, I was still shaking.

“That’s the fourth one this week.”

I looked down and took a step away from his arms. “I’ve been dreaming about stuff that happened before my embrace,” I admitted.

“So you’re remembering,” he murmured. “That’s good.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it good.” Actually, considering what I’d remembered I definitely would not call it good.

“Memories can make you stronger,” he told me.

“Or really freak you out,” I said under my breath, “considering who I’m dreaming about.”

He heard me. “Well, maybe it could be preparing you for things to come,” he suggested. “Maybe the big guy is trying to tell you something.”

Please, God, no. “Well, I hope that’s not true,” I stated in a tightly controlled voice. I didn’t think I could take it if Malcolm hurt someone else I loved. I walked to the window and stood pretending to look out into the night, but I watched his reflection in the glass. “I’ve been dreaming about Lord Malcolm.”

“Oh?” he said emotionlessly. “Such as?”

He really didn’t show any outward reaction to that, but I knew that even hearing the bastard’s name cut him to the bone. Still, all I could do was tell him about the dreams. “I told you that I’ve been dreaming about stuff that happened before my embrace.”

“You think you knew Malcolm before?” he asked, sounding a little surprised.

“I’m pretty sure,” I told him. “And I’m also pretty sure that he… doesn’t like me, at all. In fact I think it’s safe to say that he hates me.”

Now he looked confused. “Why would he be that upset with you?”

“Because I, ah—” Shit, how could I explain this? “I killed his girlfriend. Well, I didn’t do it, but he thinks it was my fault.” I could feel my hands shaking just talking about it. It hurt so much to know that Papa had been a part of the group that had killed Lizzy.

Jason came over and took me into his arms again. “Do you want to talk about what happened? You want to go for a walk and talk, get outside for some air?”

When I agreed, he took my arm and led me out of the house. Thankfully Frasier was elsewhere, and he didn’t see us go. We walked for a few minutes while I gathered my thoughts enough to explain everything.

“Well,” I began, “you know that Papa’s a hunter.”

“Yes.” Actually, it had been Jason who had found that information out.

“I had friends that were mages and I believe I was one too.” Not that I’d been that good at it from what I could remember. I certainly hadn’t been able to save Lizzy. Still, I’d been improving, and much faster than Malcolm had expected.

“Which would explain why you were embraced as you were,” Jason murmured.

“Yeah.” Tremere often embrace mages, they are supposed to be able to pick up on the Thaumaturgy a little easier than your average mortal. Cormac had been a mage before his embrace. “Papa got her alone and faked a gas explosion, him and his friends…”

“Boom, you’re dead.”

Well, that was one way of putting it. “Pretty much, but she wasn’t dead. She—” I couldn’t stop my voice from breaking as I remembered Lizzy lying in that hospital bed. “She was in the hospital for a week and Malcolm and I tried to save her. We couldn’t—”

I stopped when Jason made a low sound in his throat and I realized that I’d been clutching his arm. I let go, immediately contrite.

“I’m sorry.” It wasn’t enough that I had to hurt him by what I was telling him, I had to rip into his skin too.

He pulled me into his arms and held me until I could pull myself together again. I leaned against his strength, grateful that we had found each other and worked out the problems that had plagued our relationship. I just prayed that Malcolm wouldn’t be the wedge that drove us apart again.

“Malcolm found out that Papa was involved and he blamed me for it,” I whispered against the fabric of Jason’s shirt. “And he was right.”

“Don’t start talking like that,” he chastised me.

“I didn’t want to start this,” I reminded him roughly. “If you don’t want to hear it, then don’t ask me what’s wrong.”

He pulled me closer when I would have moved away. “It’s okay, let it out.”

I nodded and took a breath. “About a week after Lizzy died, Malcolm killed Marcus.”

“And who was that?” he asked as he led me to a bus stop bench.

“Marcus was my boyfriend,” I whispered as we sat down close together. “He snapped his neck.”

“Was Marcus part of this mage group?”

“He knew about it but he wasn’t part of it.” Jason took my hand and I looked down. This was the part I figured Jason would freak over, so I said it quickly. “And I was talking to Cormac the other night and he says that his memories came back usually when they were prompted by something. Like he dreamed about people that he saw, or had contact with. So if I’m dreaming about him, doesn’t that mean he’s around?”

I looked up in surprise when I heard the sound of wood splitting. Jason was clutching at the bench with his free hand, his face frozen.

I touched his cheek. “Now do you understand why I didn’t want to talk to you about this?” I asked harshly. I hated upsetting him like this.

He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Things are always better once they get off your chest.”

Oh yeah? “I don’t feel any better.”

“Are you done?”

Almost. This seemed harder than anything else I’d said. “Did I mention that he was my mentor?” I whispered.

Shock ran across his face. “What?”

“He’s Verbena,” I said with a nod. “He was my mentor.”

Jason looked away. “I need a drink.”

I bared my wrist for him but he just took my hand and smiled.

“We need a drink,” he corrected.

“Well you know,” I said, trying not to smile, “we could get Frasier drunk, and I could feed from him and you could feed from me and we could all three get drunk.”

That earned me the look again. “I’m sorry, but after the year you have to go through, we’ll only have one chicken left.”

I had to laugh at that. He still didn’t understand why the Tremere, with their reputation as blood magicians, didn’t have a spell that could sever the blood bond Luke held over me.

“Well, you’re smiling now,” he grinned. “At least we relieved some of the tension.”

I smiled again and laid my head on his shoulder. He held me for a few minutes before he got up and pulled me to my feet and led me inside.

We flew out of Boston just before dawn with boxes in the hold for our transportation to the holding. I didn’t worry too much about Frasier, he was getting used to my world, and anyway Rafe would be there to help him get through anything he couldn’t handle.

We arrived at the holding early Wednesday evening. Jason, Brenda and I were a little stiff from the boxes we’d traveled in, but we quickly got our feet under us. Frasier and Rafe oversaw our luggage while the rest of us sat with Lena and Mikael. The baby was sleeping, but she promised that we’d be able to see him later.

Afterward, Brenda came to my room to help me unpack the dresses. I must have been a little quieter than usual because she started to look concerned.

“Chris, what’s wrong?” she asked finally.

I’d been worried about Malcolm since I’d realized he was my enemy, but I’d made a big effort to hide it and I hadn’t thought it showed that much. “I, ah….” I sat down on the bed, not even sure of where to start. “Um, I told you I was having dreams?”

“Uh-huh.”

I looked down at my hands clenched in my lap. “I’m dreaming about Lord Malcolm, the one Lena calls the Crone and Cormac calls Lord Chaos.”

“What—” her voice caught and she had to clear her throat. “What are you dreaming about?”

“Well,” I said slowly, “remember I told you that there was a guy that was my girlfriend’s boyfriend?”

“Right.”

“His name was Malcolm.” It was the hardest thing I’d ever said.

She gave me an intense look. “Have you talked to Cormac about this?” she asked softly, sitting down next to me.

“Well, I haven’t told him I’m dreaming of Lord Chaos, but yeah, I’ve talked to him about my dreams. He said that they’re probably memories that are prompted by something I’m seeing.” I sighed deeply. “It’s so weird, Brenda.”

I glanced up to see her watching me. “We knew each other, you know?” I said softly. “And he was so mad at me because Lizzy died. And—” I could almost feel the knife sinking into my arm and I rubbed at the scar on my arm.

Brenda took my hand and looked at my arm. “Where did you get that?”

“Malcolm. He, ah, he attacked me on the street, back when I lived in Helena.” I took my arm back and rubbed at the spot, but I could almost feel the knife in my skin. “He hated me so much.” God, even talking about this made me want to cry.

Brenda put her arm around me and hugged me. I laid my head on her shoulder and let the tears fall, glad that I had a sister that would comfort me like this.

After a few minutes I was able to calm down enough to talk again. “If this is a memory Brenda,” I whispered, “if it is Lord Malcolm I’m dreaming about, then Graves isn’t the reason that Jason got embraced, I am.”

“Chris, you can’t blame someone else’s actions on yourself,” she said urgently, pulling back to look in my eyes. “You don’t even know that, I mean, come on. Don’t start talking like that.”

“No, its—” How could I explain this to her? “He hated me so much, enough to kill Marcus, to kill Jason.” I started crying again, in earnest this time. Sobs shook me and Brenda pulled me close again.

“Chris, don’t torment yourself like this,” she soothed. “Even if that’s the case, you know it’s not your fault that this Lizzy person died. You didn’t kill her.”

“Papa did,” I said through my tears.

“Yeah, but that’s not your fault.”

Wasn’t it? “But I told him where we were going.”

“So?” she demanded. “How were you supposed to know that he would go all ape shit and kill her?”

My sister, ever willing to defend me even when I didn’t deserve it. I took a deep breath to control my tears and it came out in a long sigh.

“You cannot take responsibility for his actions,” she continued righteously, “no more than I could.”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, shaking my head. But I did know, deep down. It was my fault Jason was embraced and Lena was captured. My fault, not Graves’.

“Yeah, it may be unfortunate that those circumstances led up to that,” she conceded, “but you have no control over it. What were you supposed to do? Turn yourself over to him and say ‘You know, I’m really sorry that Papa was an asshole, kill me now’?” She pulled back and looked at me.

The thought of saying that to Malcolm made me laugh a little. “Yeah.”

“This is not your fault,” she repeated, “not at all.”

“Okay,” I said reluctantly, not really even sure if I agreed with her. “And I could be wrong, maybe this isn’t even a memory, maybe this is just—”

“Maybe it’s just a bad dream because—”

“Yeah, I’ve always had nightmares anyway,” I said softly, “and maybe that’s what it was.” But it hadn’t felt like a dream, it had felt real. I remembered it as being real.

I dried my tears and told myself to forget about it for the next few days. This was supposed to be a happy occasion, after all. There was so much to do before the wedding and everyone was supposed to be there tomorrow night.

Lena came in a little while later and the three of us spent the rest of the night going over the garden and the dresses and talking about the ceremony and the baby. When I crawled into bed near dawn I thought I was too tired to dream. I was wrong.

_“Come child. It’s time to go,” I heard Papa declare. I turned to face him, sorrow filling my soul. He was dressed in his Priest’s robes, but when I looked up into his face, I saw that he was glaring at me with hatred. As I opened my mouth to speak, his body shifted to that of my mentor._

_“Malcolm?” I gasped. I hadn’t seen him since he disappeared at Lizzy’s funeral. As he opened his mouth to reply, his visage shifted ever so slightly. My hands clenched when I realized who was standing in front of me. Lord Chaos threw his head back and laughed, the sound sending a shudder down my spine. I took a step towards him as the sound echoed down the alley, and he held up his hand, palm out._

_His image shifted to that of a young black man, no more than twenty-five years old. He was just standing there smiling at me. The man turned and I saw a Latino man of the same age standing where the black man had been._

_“We can help,” he said in a smooth deep voice. I turned to run but a different voice stopped me cold._

_“Hold, child.” When I looked back again Dougal Galloway was standing before me. His image changed into that of Piston almost as soon as I realized who he was. Piston leered at me, still holding the jewel-encrusted goblet as he took a step forward. I looked away in fear at what he would do only to hear Antonio’s soothing voice._

_“What is wrong childe?”_

_I opened my eyes to see his kind face looking back at me. I was so relieved to see him…._

After I woke I stayed in bed for a long time remembering the dream I’d just had. I’d met the two men while I was in college, but I couldn’t remember their names, or how I’d met them. I wondered if they’d tried to help me with Malcolm and gotten killed for their efforts.

Finally I got up and got dressed. Almost everyone else was supposed to get in tonight, and I had to be ready to meet them. I went downstairs determined to be happy despite my worries about Malcolm.

Most of our guests had arrived during the day and Mikael had seen to it that they were taken to their rooms in the boxes they’d arrived in to await sunset. Rafe and Frasier were of course able to help him as were Stephen and Eliza, who had arrived with Cormac. Robert had also arrived during the day, but was still sleeping when the sun went down.

Michael Moorecock and Lucy Reynolds were the only guests who had not yet made it to the Holding, but they were supposed to arrive the next day. I was a little anxious about them being there because I knew their presence would cause some tension among the group.

Brenda had told me that Michael, her ex lover, was convinced she would eventually leave Rafe to return to his side, although I couldn’t see that happening any time soon. Neither Brenda nor Antonio seemed to like Lucy, although Jason and I were fond enough of her. She was older than most of us gathered here, but she had been embraced as a child. She had agreed to be our flower girl.

My Kindred brother and his family came downstairs first. The men were reserved as usual, and Eliza seemed a little more relaxed in the company of the werewolf than she had been before. Lena made them comfortable just as Antonio came down with Idella.

Nina and Estrea came down too, and soon the living room was filled with voices. Lena made sure all the introductions were made, and she had refreshments available for everyone.

I talked to Estrea for a little while, but I found the conversation frustrating. Brenda or Antonio was always with us, and as soon as the talk even began to turn to Luke or Las Vegas, one of them changed the subject. Finally I gave up trying to talk to my friend and went to talk to Lena about decorations.


	3. Snapshots of the Past

_And the leaves at my feet_   
_Whisper sounds so familiar_   
_ Concrete Blonde - Darkening of the Light   
_

A FEW HOURS later, Robert caught my attention and asked me to come upstairs with him. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him alone since he’d arrived, so I went eagerly.

“I took a few of your belongings from when you disappeared,” he told me when we reached his room. “I’ve been holding them. Good thing you were still hiding things in the trunk at the foot of your bed, Papa never looked under your clothes.”

Yeah, I still did that even now. “Well, what do you have?”

He pulled a camera case from his suitcase and brought it over to me. With a start I realized that it was the case Marcus had given me, complete with my initials. It also had a USC Berkley sticker on it.

I took it from him and opened it. On top of the camera was a small manila envelope. I picked it up and concentrated to see what images I could of it, but I only saw Robert putting it into the case.

Slowly I pulled the pictures from the envelope and looked at the top one. It was Marcus, wearing his leather jacket and looking very thoughtful. I smiled a little, remembering how much I had loved him.

The next picture was also of Marcus, looking even more pensive than the first one. After that was one of me leaning against a wall and staring quite seriously at the camera while wearing Marcus’ leather jacket. Then there was another picture of Marcus, he was standing next to his motorcycle and looking off at something to his right.

I remembered suddenly that he’d been looking at Lizzy. These two photos had been taken the day that she’d gone home early, the day of the explosion that changed all our lives forever. I really didn’t want to see what the rest of the pictures were, but I knew I had to look.

It was as I’d feared. The next photograph was of Malcolm and Lizzy. They were standing very close like they usually did when they were together. It was so hard to believe that later that same day she’d been hurt so very badly.

The last picture was of Malcolm by himself. His hair was long and twisted in dread locks, and there were holes in the knees of his pants. This was the way I wanted to remember him, my friend and mentor, but more recent images of him kept invading my mind.

“Do you know them?” Robert asked. “Tina?”

I glanced up. “Yeah, I know them. This is Marcus,” I said, handing him one of those pictures.

“Isn’t this Joe Thorpe’s kid from across town?”

Like I remembered. “Yeah, I guess.” I hesitated a moment before handing him the next picture. “This is Lizzy.”

“She’s naked,” he said softly.

“Actually, that’s a bathing suit top, trust me,” I told him. I pointed to Malcolm. “And this, this was my mentor.”

“I heard something about it,” he murmured thoughtfully, looking down at the picture, “but…”

“Yeah,” I said seeing his hesitation, “it’s Malcolm. Lord Malcolm.”

He looked up at me in surprise, then back down at the picture. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.” To put it mildly. “Did I mention that Papa killed Lizzy?” I asked wryly. “Which would explain why Malcolm got really pissed at me.”

He frowned. “So why did he go after Lena?”

I shook my head sadly. “You know, I originally thought it was because of something Graves did, but I’m starting to think a little differently.” Now I knew it was my fault. “He killed Marcus, and Jason. He was working on Lena.”

I sat looking down at the picture of Marcus for a moment, saddened at the knowledge that I’d been responsible for his death. I closed my eyes and concentrated. After a moment I put the pictures back into the envelope and picked up the camera. There was still film in it, and if I remembered correctly, there were a few exposures left on the roll.

_You’re going to need some practice with some real equipment if you’re going to get into a good program in college, _Marcus had told me when he’d given me the camera. If only I hadn’t been so stubborn and gone like he wanted me to. Lizzy might still be alive, and so much could have been avoided.

“Do you know where the jacket is?” I asked Robert softly.

“No, I don’t.” His voice still seemed a little shocked. “I didn’t really have a lot of time to look through things. It’s probably still in the trunk, if Papa hasn’t gotten rid of it.”

“I don’t remember seeing it when I went to visit him,” I told him. “I wonder if he still has it.”

“There wasn’t much else in it besides clothes. Some dried up flowers—” He stopped for a moment, then cursed under his breath and went to the dresser. He opened the top drawer and pulled out a knife shaped object wrapped in a cloth and came back toward me with it. “And this.”

I knew what it was the instant my fingers closed on the blade. I didn’t have to pull back the cloth to see the thin blade and the dark gray handle of Lizzy’s ceremonial dagger. I didn’t have to, but I did.

I wrapped the knife back up and rested it on my leg. “Is there anything else that you’re forgetting?”

“No, I didn’t have a lot of time,” he told me sadly. “Papa was in the house.”

My eyebrow shot up. “That wasn’t real bright.” He was lucky Papa hadn’t killed him. Again.

He shrugged. “He came home unexpectedly.”

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “Okay, well, I’m going to go put these in my room, we probably should go back downstairs.”

He looked at my face closely. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” I said quickly. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Or I would be, eventually. I took the stuff into my bedroom and buried it at the bottom of my suitcase. Robert was waiting for me in the hall and we went downstairs together.

I spent a little while talking to Nina and Estrea before I saw Jason and Graves come into the room. When Lena grabbed Graves’ arm and pulled him back out, I went to talk to Jason.

“So how are things going?” I asked as I kissed his cheek.

“Not bad,” he replied quietly. “I’m looking forward to the ceremony.”

Well, that was a relief. “I just got done looking backward.”

“Back on?”

“Well, Robert had a few things of mine from before,” I told him. “A camera and a few pictures from high school.”

“Friends, family?” he prompted.

“Friends, then anyway,” I told him. I wondered for a moment if I should show him, but I knew that I had to. “Do you want to go up and take a look?”

“Sure,” he said easily.

“Are you sure?” I asked earnestly. “‘Cause I don’t want to ruin your evening.”

“I’m with you,” he said softly. “Nothing could ruin my evening.”

I chuckled ruefully. “You haven’t seen the pictures.”

Threading my arm through his, I led him upstairs to my room where I pulled the camera case out and brought it over to bed. I took out the pictures and handed him all of them except the ones of Malcolm.

“This is Marcus,” I said as he looked at the top one. “Remember I told you about him?”

“Oh, yes,” he replied. “He seems to be a fairly troubled young man.”

In the pictures, he did look like that. I didn’t remember him enough to say if that was what he was really like. “Kind of serious.”

“It looks like something was bugging him,” he added, turning to the next picture. “I like the bike.”

I smiled. “I liked it too, if I remember it correctly.”

Jason looked down at the pictures and when he growled I knew he recognized his tormentor.

“I warned you,” I said sorrowfully. “I told you it would ruin your evening.”

He cleared his throat. “Where did you get these?”

“Robert pulled them out of my trunk at Papa’s house after I disappeared.” When he finally looked at the last picture, I added, “I told you I knew Malcolm. That’s Lizzy.”

“She’s naked,” he murmured.

“No,” I told him, amused that he even noticed her state of dress. “It’s a bathing suit.”

When he sighed, I took the pictures from him. “Let me just put these back away,” I said softly. I knew he was upset because his hands were shaking. Showing him the photographs had been a bad idea.

He watched me put the photos back in the case. “He brought you the case as well?”

“He did,” I told him, pulling the camera out to show him. “There’s film in the camera and when I get home I’ll get it developed.”

“I’m anxious to see what’s on them,” he murmured.

“Well, they don’t exactly have a photo mart in the middle of Austria,” I reminded him, “so it will have to wait until we get back. I’m pretty anxious to see what’s on the roll myself.”

“What exactly happened?” he asked suddenly.

I sighed. “Well, I told you he was my mentor. We were–-” Damn, it was so hard to talk about this with him. “The four of us were all out and about one day and Lizzy got sick so she gated home and there was a gas explosion. Remember I told you about this?”

“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “It’s all kind of a haze right now.”

I didn’t blame him, I was thinking none too clearly myself. “Malcolm blamed Papa, and me, got really pissed and killed Marcus.”

“I seem to recall his temper.”

He rubbed his left wrist and I remembered the horror I’d felt when I’d learned it had been cut off. Luckily Jason had been allowed to regrow it before his embrace. Then I remembered that it was my fault Malcolm had captured him to begin with.

“What tradition is he?” he demanded softly.

“Verbena,” I told him, closing my eyes. “Which explains why the Verbena were following L-Lena and me and—” Hell, I couldn’t avoid saying his name forever. “Luke through Europe.”

Maybe I should have avoided it; Luke’s name was like acid on Jason’s temper. I got up and quietly put everything back in my suitcase, trying to give him room and time to calm down.

“I warned you this would ruin your night,” I reminded him when I was done.

He sighed heavily, and I felt like such an idiot for bringing up the subjects of Malcolm and Luke. Jason looked like he could kill something, and I hoped that he’d calm down before we went back downstairs.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking down at the floor.

“It’s okay,” he told me, standing and coming to take me in his arms. “It’s not your fault.”

I wanted to laugh; of course it was my fault, everything was my fault. “Yeah, right,” I breathed. “Whatever.”

We went downstairs soon afterward to be with our guests. I could tell he was still upset though, because every time I looked over at him, he was twisting his ring. Of course, I was twisting mine too.

Brenda suggested we check out the garden where the ceremony was going to be, and all of us girls went outside. Well, all but Eliza. She didn’t move more than five feet from Cormac the entire evening except to use the ladies room and hold the baby.

Near dawn I went to bed and hoped I’d dream about good things, like the wedding, or my fiancé. It’s a shame that we don’t always get what we want.


	4. Dreamwalking

_And attacked from all sides_  
By a world filled with poison and hate  
Concrete Blonde - The Sky Is a Poisonous Garden  


_I WAS TRYING to straighten the hem of my dress as I came down the stairs, carrying my shoes in one hand and my purse in the other. When I reached the bottom, I leaned on the banister pole for support as I slipped the shoes on._

_Normally I liked the color black, but I found it hard to like anything the last few days._

_As I headed for the door my father came up behind me. “Just where do you think you’re going?” he bellowed._

_“I’m going to the funeral,” I told him in a hard voice without turning around. “And you can’t stop me, Papa.”_

_“You will do as I say!” he shouted as he grabbed my arm._

_I tried to break free but he had a firm grip and he was much stronger than I was._

_“Haven’t you learned to stay away from those people yet? How many more of them have to get themselves killed before you realize how evil they are?”_

_If only Papa would accept the abilities I’d been developing. I really was getting good, almost as good as Lizzy had been. But I hadn’t been able to concentrate since…_

_I broke down into tears again just thinking about Lizzy lying there in that hospital bed for a week before she died. Then Malcolm had disappeared, and now Marcus was dead too. My legs gave out and I would have fallen to the floor if my father hadn’t caught me._

_“Calm down, dear,” he said, his voice kinder than I’d heard it in a long time._

_I stopped sobbing but the tears were still running down my face._

_“Come on, Tina, let’s get you back upstairs.” He helped me to my feet and led me back up to my room, holding me close all the way. I laid down on the bed and tried to calm myself down, but I couldn’t stop crying completely and I felt very confused._

_Papa had acted so lovingly today, but during the last month he’d been so hard. It was almost as if he hadn’t been surprised when Lizzy had died. I pushed those thoughts from my mind as I tried to get comfortable._

_Some time later I got up and drew myself a hot bath. As I relax, I finally drifted off to sleep for the first time in what felt like days._

_Tina, I heard Malcolm say in my mind, but I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not. Tina, we missed you today. Marcus looked so peaceful, so happy that he wasn’t here anymore. Then his voice changed, becoming harder, filled with hate._

_He understood why he died. I explained it to him before I broke his fucking neck._

_I sat bolt upright in the bathtub on the verge of screaming, but I quickly realized that I had been sleeping. It had just been a horrible dream. As I laid back in the water, Malcolm’s voice came to me once again, still filled with hatred._

You killed my love. I killed yours.

_I sat up again, startled by the harshness of his voice. After a few shaky breaths, I laid back. I closed my eyes trying to think of something else, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still in my mind._

_I gasped when I felt something touch the inside of my thigh under the water. Something was in the tub with me! I shrank back and stood quickly, looking down into the water. Floating on the surface was a hand. Looking closer, I realized that it was a man’s left hand, and on the ring finger was a gold wedding band._

_In my mind I heard Malcolm singing. _There’s a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed…

_~*~*~*~*~*~_

_Something wakes me, but for a moment I can’t identify what it is. I sit bolt upright in the bed and Malcolm’s voice fills my head. There’s a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed…_

_A quick glance at the vanity mirror shows that it has a long crack running down the length of it. I feel something cold and wet in the bed with me and I slowly peal back the covers. The sheets and my pajamas are covered with blood._

_There is a horrible smell in the air, I’m not sure what it is. When I heighten my senses I can identify it; fire, blood, gunpowder, and burning flesh. The smells are distinct, fresh, and coming from the hallway. I grab my gun from the bedside table and run from the room, intent on finding the source of the odors._

_It is coming from downstairs and getting stronger as I move toward the stairs. By the time I reach the landing the stench is almost overwhelming. I can see smoke coming from the living room doorway as I make my way carefully down the steps._

_I try to project a mental thought to Brenda, but when I reach out there is no reply. As I move toward the living room, I hear a loud sucking sound. I move carefully, cautiously, not wanting to walk into a trap. Instead, I walk into a nightmare._

_The chairs have been kicked away from the center of the room and standing in the space they’d once occupied was the mage Cormac calls Lord Chaos. His face is wrinkled and there is an X shaped brand between his black eyes. He looks old, haggard, evil._

_Standing to his right is a tall hooded figure wearing black robes. He is half turned away from me so I can’t see his face, and his hands are covered with dark gloves. My instincts tell me I’ve seen that figure before, but I reject the thought even as it runs across my mind._

_Scattered on the floor around them are bodies and blood. I see Lena there with her throat ripped out. Mikael is nearby with bullet holes in his chest, his blood spilling on the ground around the remains of the baby. Rafe is there too, lying face down in a pool of his own blood. And off to one side is Robert, blood matting in the remains of his hair._

_What shocks me the most is the sight of Brenda kneeling over a lifeless Antonio, drinking from his neck. His head is thrown back and from look on his face and way she is drinking, I know that she is trying to drain the life force from his unconscious body._

_Rage fills me. Malcolm has done this, done all of it. He wants to pay me back by destroying everything I care about and he is doing a damned fine job of it. I step away from the doorway and raise my gun to fire at him, but before I can pull the trigger, the hooded man raises his head to look at me._

_It is Jason, just as I knew it would be, and he has a brand that matches Malcolm’s between his eyes. My shot goes wild, the phosphorous exploding fire against the far wall._

_Brenda straightens and wipes the blood from her lips. It disgusts me to think that she’s fallen so far under Malcolm’s spell that she can heartlessly kill our sire. Slowly she pulls a Glock from beneath her jacket._

_Before I can fire at Malcolm again, Jason steps between us, leaving me almost in shock. Jason is in league with Lord Chaos? He’s helping him? What the hell is going on?_

_I know there is no way I’ll be able to fire at him, nothing he does could ever make me shoot the man I love so very much. If he’s joined forces with the Crone then it’s my fault._

_My sister raises her gun and points it at me. “You stupid bitch!” she shouts. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”_

_At that instant, Jason raises his gun and calls out for me to move. Without a second’s hesitation I dive to my left. As soon as I am out of the way, I hear Frasier’s voice._

_“What the hell is going on?” he demands from the doorway._

_“Thanks,” Jason says to me, his voice low and cold. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”_

_Brenda stands and kicks Antonio’s lifeless body before moving closer to Malcolm. Time slows to a crawl as I scream for Frasier to get down. I know he’s going to die, but I also know that there is nothing I can do to stop it. I can’t shoot Jason or Malcolm, but I can shoot Brenda, the murderer of our sire._

_Jason aims for Frasier and from the corner of my eye I see the bullet hit him square in the chest. He goes flying back into the hall, and the smell of burning flesh and the sorrow I feel at his death nearly overwhelms me._

_When my sister points her gun at me I don’t even try to dodge the bullet. Everything I have ever cared about is in this room, dead or turned against me. I fire at her even as I feel the impact of her bullet in my stomach. Blackness engulfs my world._

_~*~*~*~*~*~_

_I wake to someone slapping me sharply across the face and a weight on my chest that also pins my arms to the floor. My stomach burns and my gun is gone. When I open my eyes, I see that Jason is sitting on top of me, looking down at me with contempt._

_A movement behind him draws my attention and I see Malcolm standing there, a satisfied smirk on his face._

_“Is she still alive?” Brenda demands from his side, her face hateful and bitter. The shoulder of her shirt is burned away and I can see her charred skin beneath what was left of the fabric._

_“Barely,” Jason replies. He seems disappointed._

_“Damn it!” she exclaims angrily._

_“What do you wish of her, Crone?” Jason asks. He looks ready to do whatever Malcolm wants him to._

_Lord Chaos steps closer, and I can see the blood on his teeth as he gives a contemptuous sigh. “Poor little Tina,” he murmurs mockingly._

_“I can’t believe that she was so naïve to believe we cared about her,” Jason says scathingly, his eyes colder than I’ve ever seen them._

_I look at Malcolm wondering how it has it come this far. Hadn’t he already destroyed enough people in my life? “Why are you doing this?” I whisper._

_“I showed them what happens to the people you love,” he tells me coldly. “Your mother, your brother, Lizzy, Marcus, Jason—”_

_“Twice,” Jason puts in with a sardonic smile._

_“Lena, Antonio—” the mage continues._

_“You made him weak,” Brenda tells me._

_“You have destroyed everything you have ever loved,” Malcolm finishes bluntly._

_“Do you really think this is going to bring her back?” I demand flatly. It takes everything I have to keep the painful emotions I feel from my voice._

_“That doesn’t matter anymore,” he replies dismissively. “The only thing that matters is getting my revenge for what you did.”_

_“What would she think of you now?” I ask sadly. I know there is no way Lizzy would ever approve of his actions._

_“I’m past that now,” he tells me, his voice cold as ice. “She’s dead, and anyway I don’t care anymore.” He looks down at me for what feels like a long time, savoring the fact that I am under his control. “Kill her,” he says at last._

_This can’t be happening; Jason and Brenda wouldn’t kill me. I look up at the man I love with all my heart, with all my soul. “Jason,” I whisper pleadingly._

_His reply breaks my heart as he says the same words he said to me two years ago on the streets of San Francisco._

_“Get over it,” he says as he places the barrel of his gun underneath my chin._

_Brenda leans over and touches her gun to my forehead. I close my eyes and wait for the explosions that will end my existence…_


	5. Gateways

_In the quiet secret places_  
_Are you there? Are you there?_  
_ Concrete Blonde - Darkening of the light_

SUDDENLY I REALIZED that someone was on the bed with me, that hands were on my shoulders shaking me awake. I sat up and reached for the intruder’s throat even as I realized that it was Jason. The claws shot out almost of their own volition and bit into the skin of his neck. He froze with his hands still on my shoulders.

“Christina,” he whispered through my iron grip on his throat, “what’s wrong?”

I glanced to my right at the mirror and the instant my eyes fell on the glass it broke. Turning back to Jason I saw Brenda enter the room behind him, still in her nightgown.

I felt something wet seeping down my thumb and realized that one of my claws had cut through the skin of his neck and that blood was running slowly down my hand. As I watched, it dripped slowly to the sheets, staining the white linen.

Once again I heard Malcolm’s voice in my head. _There’s a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed…._

My gun was to on the nightstand just out of reach, but a moment’s quick concentration levitated it over so that I could grab it with my left hand. I immediately pointed it at Brenda and she stopped, shock written all over her face.

“Jesus Fucking Christ,” I hissed softly.

“Christina,” Jason hissed as well as he could with my hand choking his windpipe.

Was I awake? Was I dreaming? Had I dreamed the last few weeks? I tried to feel Jason’s skin under my hand, but it was clenched so tightly on his throat that I couldn’t tell if his skin was smooth or bumpy under my fingers.

“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded angrily, fighting for control of the beast within me that wanted to break free and destroy these two people who just a moment ago had been trying to kill me.

“Go get Frasier,” Jason called back to Brenda.

“Chris, what the hell are you doing?” she asked, very confused. “Was he trying to leave again and you’re stopping him?” She stood there staring at us, a hand on her shoulder. It was the very spot I’d shot her only moments ago.

I was too shaken to answer her, so Jason did.

“I don’t know,” he said hoarsely, “she did this the other night but it wasn’t this bad.”

“Where’s Antonio?” I demanded of Brenda. The instant I said his name, I searched for him with my mind.

_Yes, my childe? _he replied quickly.

_Where are you?_ I asked frantically, relieved that he still lived.

_In my room, _he told me, his words calm. _Where are you?_

_In my room, _I replied wryly, _with a gun on Brenda and a claw in Jason’s throat. _It was hard for me to control the blind panic I felt but somehow I was managing.

_What? _The shock he felt came across to me in just that one word.

_I just had this really weird experience and you were dead, _I told him bluntly. Something wasn’t right here. I couldn’t tell if this was real or if what had happened before was real, but I knew I had to find out what which one was reality before I let my guard down.

“Can you loosen up just a little, please?” Jason asked calmly. He let go of my shoulders and held his hands up, palms toward me.

“In a minute,” I told him, not loosening my grip at all. _Could you please come to my room NOW? _I called to Antonio desperately.

_Certainly, _came his reply.

“Or at least take it out?” Jason suggested.

I didn’t bother to answer him. I wanted to see Antonio with my own eyes before I could bring myself to believe that he was still alive.

“Chris, did you have another dream?” Brenda asked softly, obviously trying not to spook me any more than I already was. “Because I sure as hell did.”

“What was your dream?” I demanded coldly.

“Well,” she began, but Jason interrupted her.

“It looks like we all had them,” he said roughly. “I’m kind of feeling mine a little more, though.”

“Something about a funeral and a bathtub,” Brenda told me.

“And someone missing the funeral because daddy wouldn’t let her go,” Jason added.

“Yeah,” she agreed hoarsely, looking hesitantly toward Jason. “And a hand?”

“I’m the one with a claw in my throat,” he told her, trying to smile. “I’m the only one supposed to sound like that.”

Brenda looked at me sternly. “Unless you want to do some permanent damage, you might want to let go.”

She was right, of course. I couldn’t shoot a few minutes ago, what made me think I could kill him now? I eased the claw from his skin, but I didn’t let go of his throat. I couldn’t forget the way that he’d looked down at me in disgust with Malcolm standing at his shoulder.

To my great relief, Antonio came into the room and walked over to stand beside Brenda. His gaze quickly took in my gun and the claws at Jason’s throat before he looked questioningly at Brenda.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “I had a weird dream and it sounds like Jason did too,” she told him, her voice still sounding very worried. “I came in and found this.”

“Hi,” Jason called over his shoulder. “How ya doin’?”

I didn’t bother to say anything out loud. Through our mental link I sent Antonio images from the dream; waking to the smell of blood and burning flesh, smoke and gunpowder; seeing the bodies that littered the floor; Brenda with her fangs in our sire’s throat; of Jason shooting Frasier; Brenda and I shooting each other. I also sent a replay of the words that Malcolm had spoken to me.

While I was distracted with Antonio, Jason’s hand shot up and pulled my hand away from his throat but he didn’t move away. I scooted back toward the headboard and all at once I felt a burning pain in my stomach where Brenda had shot me.

Keeping the gun on both Jason and Brenda, I ran my right hand over my abdomen, but there was no wound, no blood except Jason’s.

Antonio’s shock showed on his face. He shot a puzzled glance between Jason and Brenda before looking back at me expectantly.

“Anyone else have the feeling that we’re left out of the informational loop?” Jason asked, rubbing his neck.

My head was finally clearing of the panic I’d felt and I pointed the gun at the ceiling. “I’m assuming it was just a dream,” I murmured regretfully.

“I think that would be an understatement,” Antonio agreed, his Spanish accent strong.

“What are you talking about?” Brenda demanded.

Antonio just looked at her, but from the expression on her face I knew he was passing along the images from my dream. Her mouth dropped open and she staggered a little on her feet. She looked at me, stunned, horror in her eyes.

“Your shoulder hurts,” I said softly, watching her rub where my bullet had hit. When she looked down at the spot, I added, “Because my stomach hurts. Okay, is it my imagination or is the mirror broken?”

Everyone turned to look at the mirror.

“It’s cracked,” Antonio agreed.

I looked down at the sheets where Jason’s vitae had dripped from my hand. “And there’s blood on the bed.”

“On my shirt,” Jason added, “my pants, on the bed, your arm.”

“On the bed,” I repeated insistently.

Brenda looked at him, still confused. “What does that mean?”

Jason got it, finally. “Isn’t there a song?”

“Actually, there is,” I told him quite seriously, “and you know, I keep hearing Malcolm singing it to me.”

“Why would he be singing it to you?” Brenda questioned.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “but ‘crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed’. The mirror wasn’t cracked until I looked at it.”

We heard footsteps moving down the hall and we all turned to look as Frasier came into the room.

I looked at Jason feeling more tired than I could ever remember. “Don’t shoot him.”

“What?” Brenda demanded.

“Does someone want to fill me in on what’s going on?” Jason asked softly.

“Yeah, me too,” Frasier put in.

With the tense situation finally over, my hands started to shake. I laid the gun down on the bed and retracted the claws on my right hand. There was still blood on my hand and without thinking I almost licked it off. Then I remembered that it was Jason’s blood. As he ripped a part of his shirt to tie around the wound on his neck, I wiped my hand on the bed sheets.

“I just–” My voice was shaking and I stopped to take a deep breath before I could continue. “I had this really weird dream that led into this other weird dream that-that she was diablerizing Antonio,” I said pointing at Brenda, “and you shot Frasier and then you had this ‘X’ branded in the middle of your forehead,” I told Jason. “You remember who else has that? ‘Cause he was standing right next to you. And then she shot me,” I added.

“Again?” both Frasier and Jason exclaimed.

“Are you okay?” Brenda asked, taking a step toward the bed.

“Physically?” Emotionally I was still a wreck. “My stomach still hurts, but there appears to be no blood.” When I rubbed at the spot, Jason eased his hand over mine soothingly.

I reached up and touched the fabric on his neck gently. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “You woke me up, of course that was after you woke me up and were shooting me in the head. It was the whole dream thing.”

He seemed too shaken to speak for a moment. “What-what would make you think I would do that?”

“Oh, it was a pretty vivid dream,” I confessed ruefully. “You had a gun under my chin, and Brenda had a gun on my forehead, and then all of a sudden you were shaking me awake.”

He looked into my eyes sadly. “Do you honestly believe that I would hurt you?”

I let him pull me into his arms. “I’m sorry, it was like everyone was dead except the three of you.”

“I know that feeling, so I kind of can understand,” he told me, reminding me that he had once been the sole survivor of an attack on a monastery.

I remembered what Cormac had told me about dreamwalking being interactive, and that’s what my dream had felt like. I had to assume that Malcolm was nearby. I looked frantically at Frasier. “Is everything okay?” I demanded quickly. “Has anything happened today? Any weird stuff? Any strangers around?”

He shook his head. “Well, our last two guests have arrived,” he told me. “They just came down. The girl was smelling flowers and Michael was bitching about his box.”

“If-if Malcolm is dreamwalking, and he’s close enough to break the mirror,” I asked Jason, “doesn’t it seem likely that he’s around somewhere?”

“_Spekenze Gangrellish?_” he asked drolly.

“You know,” I said impatiently, “like he’s affecting my dreams, manipulating them. What was that you said about a dream that you had? About—”

“About you going to the funeral and the picture of that one guy you had,” he told me.

“If you also dreamed about the bathtub too and the hand, I’m not the only one whose dreams he’s walking in,” I told him.

“Wait a minute,” Jason said hotly, “you’re telling me that he’s telling me what to dream?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, “and Brenda, and me.”

“And you said he had to be close to do this?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I admitted, “but it seems like he’d have to be close to do that.” I turned and pointed at the broken mirror.

Jason looked at my sire. “Antonio?”

“Perhaps our Lupine friends can find something,” he replied.

“I’m going to check on Lena,” Brenda told me.

I was glad she’d thought of it. “Please.”

“I think we have a hunting party,” Jason murmured.

Antonio followed Frasier and Brenda out of the room, leaving me alone with Jason.

“If there’s this link thing, can we track him?” he asked.

“I don’t know, it’s a mage ability.” There was just so much I didn’t remember about being a mage.

“What mages do—” he began, then said, “Cormac.”

I nodded. “He knows mages.”

Jason felt in his pocket for his phone, but it wasn’t there. “Where’s your phone?” he asked quickly.

I pointed toward the dresser. “Over there.”

He went and got it, then dialed a number. We could hear another phone ringing down the hall before Cormac answered it.

“Hello?”

“You want to come up to Chris’ room, right away please?” Jason asked a little too nicely.

“Sure,” he replied, sounding calm as usual. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Jason replied, “we just think you may have some fun.”

“Oh, God,” I murmured as he hung up. “Fun? You call this fun?” I demanded softly, looking at the strip of fabric on his neck.

Cormac came slowly around the corner of the doorway, his gun drawn but held down by his side. When he saw no immediate danger, he came in with Eliza right behind him. She had a stake in her right hand, although it wasn’t poised for the strike.

“What’s wrong?” my Kindred brother demanded in a low voice.

“Do you remember our talk about dreamwalking?” I asked him softly. When he nodded, I said, “I know you said he wouldn’t have to be close for that, but how close would he have to be to—”

“Why’d you break the mirror?” he asked, looking over at it.

“—break the mirror?” I finished at the same time, pointing at the broken glass.

Cormac walked over to the mirror and placed his hand on the crack. A moment later his head spun to look at the doorway to the hall. “Apparently very close,” he murmured, his voice low and dangerous.

“How close?” I demanded.

“Well, he’s not here anymore,” he assured me.

That wasn’t good enough. “How close?” When he didn’t answer me, I got out of the bed and went to the vanity myself.

Cormac took a breath and exhaled softly on the glass just as I reached him. In the fog it left behind, I could see a hand print right across the middle of the crack.

I stared at the mirror for a long moment before I put my hand directly over the print on the glass.

_Cormac stood with his hand on the glass looking toward the doorway._

_There was a person shaped blur standing near the dresser with what seemed to be an arm reaching out and touching the glass. The vision caught the mirror in the process of breaking._

I gasped and pulled my hand away, rubbing it on the leg of my pajamas. “Can we assume he gated out of here?” I asked softly.

“Yes,” Cormac agreed, “that would be a logical assumption.”

“So he could be anywhere.” God, this was so frustrating. “Do you know any kind of ward or anything to keep him out of the holding?”

He shook his head. “Most wards don’t encompass the entire object to be protected,” he reminded me. “A barrier, like a doorstep, a window is warded. They cannot cross it physically. He could gate in past it.”

Fuck. I searched my mind for anything that would work, but I came up empty. “Any mage thing that you know of that could prevent him from coming in?” I asked desperately before I remembered that we did have a mage at the holding with us. “Robert might know how to keep him out.”

“Perhaps,” Cormac murmured.

I shivered at the knowledge that my greatest enemy had been in the very room I’d been sleeping in. Ruthlessly I pushed the fear I felt away.

“I need to get dressed,” I said pointedly.

Cormac turned and ushered Eliza out of the room, closing the door behind them. Jason stayed with me while I got dressed and we went to find Robert.

“Do you know any rituals that could be used on the house to prevent anyone from gating in?” I asked as soon as we found him and told him what was going on.

“I know something we could try,” he replied, “but we would need something of his.”

“I don’t suppose a picture would work,” I said, knowing the answer was no.

“Those are your pictures,” he reminded me. “It’s not quite personal enough.”

“The knife was Lizzy’s,” I mumbled to myself. I just didn’t have anything that had belonged to Malcolm.

“Something he’s touched lately?” Jason suggested.

“The mirror, upstairs,” I put in.

Robert shook his head. “It takes more than a touch, we’d need something personal, like a cross, or jewelry.”

A thought occurred to me. “What about the coins that you found in Lena’s room?” I asked Robert. “I think those were Malcolm’s.”

He nodded. “That might work, if it’s the best thing we have.”

It was. “We’ll get them,” I told Robert. “I think Cormac has them.” It took another phone call to ask Cormac to bring us one of the coins. “You know, if Antonio would let us teach the whole mind thing then we wouldn’t have to do this,” I murmured as I hung up the phone.

“You really have to show me that,” Jason agreed.

I smiled. “I’m not sure if you could without Tremere blood.” I held out my wrist to him in what was quickly becoming a standing joke between us. The stern look he gave me made me smile.

“Well I couldn’t let my dear drain herself, so we must replenish her.” At that he offered his wrist to me.

“Children,” Cormac drawled as he joined us, reminding us of the situation. “Not at the Holding.”

I laughed and took the coin from Cormac. “I don’t think so, I’m in enough trouble, thank you,” I reminded Jason as I handed the coin to Robert. “Do you need anything else?”

“Time,” he said patiently.

There would never be enough time if Malcolm decided to come back now. “Blood of a chicken?” I offered anxiously.

“No,” he replied seriously enough, “that’s a Verbena ritual.”

I tried to smile. “I knew there was something.”

“See?” Jason said quickly. “I told you.”

Robert went of to perform the ritual while Jason and I returned to the gathering. After a while the dream faded a bit from my memory, but my stomach hurt for hours into the night.

Toward midnight the other women and I began to set up the chairs and decorations for the ceremony. I noticed that Lucy stuck pretty close to Jason, Michael or me all night, and it almost made me feel bad that I’d invited her.

Near dawn a tired looking Robert came back downstairs. He took me aside and told me that he’d done the ritual I’d asked for, but there was no way to tell if he had actually succeeded unless Malcolm showed up. Of course that didn’t settle my mind too well, but there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to put my faith in my brother’s abilities and hope everything turned out all right.


	6. Vows

_You were meant to be together_   
_Like a fog around a mountain, forever and ever_   
_ Concrete Blonde - Lullaby _

I woke as the sun went down from yet another dream from my mortal past that had in fact been a memory. From the events that had happened in my dream, I now realized that I had met Luke at least once while I was mortal. At first I was angry that Luke had never mentioned the incident to me, but I quickly realized that at the time he’d been a little preoccupied with other things that had been going on and probably hadn’t even see me.

I knew I hadn’t seen any of the other Kindred before that night, but I couldn’t remember if I’d spent any more time with them afterwards. Zach dela Roche had been Tremere, which was clear both from the ‘warlock’ comment the bad guy had made and the fact that he’d used Movement of the Mind, an almost exclusively Tremere ability, to float down from the girder he’d been standing on.

Had meeting Zach somehow led to my embrace? I hoped that was the case. I hoped that Malcolm hadn’t engineered my embrace the way he’d arranged Jason’s. I liked my life, but if I found out that it had been forced upon me, I didn’t know how I would feel.

This dream had happened years later than the others, but somehow I knew that I hadn’t been that serious about a boyfriend since Marcus had died. Oh, I’d dated, but there hadn’t been anyone that important to me. I wondered if Malcolm had still been killing my friends off.

I made myself stop thinking about Malcolm when Nina, Lena and Brenda knocked on the door and we began the process of getting ready for the wedding. Lucy came by a little while later and we had fun together, really. We talked a lot of girl talk and did each other’s hair and make up. The long mauve dresses fit everyone perfectly, amazingly enough, and they all looked beautiful.

Frasier lurked outside the bedroom door and Nina kept sending him off on errands just to get him out of our hair. Jason tried to get by the girls once, but Lena gave him a talking to that sent him back downstairs with his ears burning.

Finally Antonio came to tell us it was time to go down. All the groomsmen were waiting in their elegant tuxedos for us to come out, and Lucy led the way toward the stairs in her dainty white gown. The men offered their arms for the women and we walked quietly downstairs to the hall.

Of course Lucy went first, scattering rose petals where the rest of us were to walk. Lena and Mikael went next, and I found it very hard to believe she’d had a baby just a little more than a month ago.

Even Daedelus looked handsome with Nina on his arm, and she didn’t seem to mind having been paired with a Nosferatu. Brenda and Graves followed them leaving Antonio and I alone for a moment.

“Be happy, my childe,” he told me softly as he bent to kiss my cheek.

“I will, sire,” I replied with a smile.

The music cued for our entrance and Antonio led me into the garden. Jason was standing near Stephen looking very handsome. We joined them and Antonio placed my hand in that of my soon to be husband before he stepped back and sat down.

Stephen looked quite seriously between the two of us and spoke a few words about love and devotion. When he asked if anyone had any objection to the wedding, I held my breath, half thinking that Malcolm would do something to stop it. When no one said a word, he looked at Jason.

“Wilt thou take Christina Joanne Strong, here present, for thy lawful wife?” he asked gravely. “To have and to hold for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse, in injury and in health, as long as you both exist?”

“I will,” Jason replied firmly.

Stephen turned to me. “Wilt thou take Jason Kline, here present, for thy lawful husband? To have and to hold for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse, in injury and in health, as long as you both exist?”

“I will,” I told him, looking into Jason’s eyes.

“The rings please,” Stephen said to Graves. The monk held them in his hands and spoke a brief blessing over them.

He had us repeat these words over the rings; “I believe in God, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in the Holy Spirit and the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. With this ring, I thee wed.”

Stephen put his hand over ours. “By the power vested in me by the almighty,” he said solemnly, “I join you in Holy Matrimony. Let no one come between you for all eternity. _In nomine patris, et fili, et spiritu sanctu. _Amen.”

He smiled at Jason. “You may kiss the bride.”

Jason looked seriously down into my eyes and leaned close for a brief kiss. There was a promise in his eyes that there would be more later, much more. If I were human I would have blushed.

The night before we had set up tables in the garden for dinner, mindful of the fact that we did have those among us that required food. Everyone sat down and Lena made sure that everyone had enough to eat, including the Kindred who preferred blood to the meal made by the villagers.

After everyone who wanted to had eaten, Graves brought out several bottles of champagne. Rafe and Frasier went among the crowd and filled wineglasses for the toast.

Graves stood. “Perhaps not all of you know this, but Jason and Christina’s relationship had a rather unique beginning. Two years ago the hotel she was staying in caught fire and Jason went in to save her. She didn’t trust him at first, as we all know Christina doesn’t give her trust easily.”

Many people chuckled at that one and I had to admit he was right. For instance, I still didn’t trust Graves.

“Jason and Christina have not had an easy relationship,” he continued. “There have been obstacles and separations, but they have worked through their differences. The fact that they are together in spite of the problems that they’ve had is how I know that their love will endure the test of time.”

He turned to look at Jason and me, gesturing for us to stand. “For years I have considered Jason to be the son I never had. This marriage gives me a daughter as well. Welcome to the family, Christina.”

I smiled and thanked him, feeling more than a little guilty that I couldn’t bring myself to trust him. He knew it too, I could see it in his eyes as he leaned past Jason to kiss my cheek.

Graves and I sat down, but Jason remained standing. He looked around at the gathering of our friends and smiled.

“If you don’t mind, I have a few things to say to everyone,” he told them. “First of all I’d like to say that Christina and I welcome you here and we’re glad that you could join us.

“Almost everyone here knows I was and still try to think of myself as a priest of the Temple of Light. What most of you don’t know is that at the time and some time after, I was being trained by some of the best to become a hunter.”

I was surprised he was telling everyone this. In fact, his little speech was a total surprise to me.

“It was only after Graves saved me and made me his ghoul that I realized not all Kindred were evil,” he continued, smiling down at his friend. “In fact, I now believe that it was my human side that carried more of the beast. But it was also at that time that I started losing touch with God.”

“Some time passed and I met the woman who is now my wife, Christina. But a human and a vampire? Then came my downfall: Russia. I was taken for reasons that are still not fully known to me.”

I looked down, feeling the burden of guilt on my soul. It was my fault Jason had been embraced. I gave myself a mental shake and told myself not to think of Malcolm tonight as Jason went on.

“It was in that time I was killed and reborn, taken further from the light into the world of darkness. After I was rescued, I went into hiding. At the time I thought I was doing it to hide and protect my friends, then I realized that the only one I was hiding from was myself.”

He looked over at Lena and the baby. “About that time I got a call that changed my thoughts, an old friend was in trouble. Well, I’d had enough of feeling sorry for myself and I thought ‘I have to help my friend, find Chris to see if she can forgive me’. And by the grace of God when we got to the place we were staying, there she was, standing in the archway with the look we all know, the ‘I know and I know you know that I know’ look on her face.”

That comment brought a few chuckles from the group. I looked at Cormac and Nina, remembering when Jason had come into the holding looking like Graves, but I had seen only the man I loved.

“Well, to make a long story short,” Jason said, “we beat the bad buy and saved the girl and her newborn son, and got them back safely. After a drink or so I excused myself and said I would be back, I had to go take care of something.”

I frowned. I didn’t remember him excusing himself, but then I’d been busy at the time watching Stephen heal Shannon and Lena.

“I headed for the chapel and there before God I asked for his forgiveness for what I had become,” he told us. “At that point, still not knowing his plans for me, all I can recall is a blinding force of light hitting me and a pain that could match no other, or so I thought.

“Then I heard the Voice of God telling me he that while he could not restore my human body, he could transform me into what you see before you today, but I would be removed from his sight forever. The thought of being removed from the Lord’s eyes hurt more than the pain of my rebirth.”

He looked down at me with love in his eyes. “When I awoke I returned to the party only to find that my love was gone, leaving only a note behind. It was then and only then that I understood the true meaning of pain. It wasn’t my rebirth, it wasn’t being torn from God’s eyes. It was a broken heart, the greatest pain of all. I told myself ‘I lost her once and I can’t do it again’. I had to get her back in my life because she’d never left my heart.”

Seeing the love on his face and hearing the echo of his pain made me ashamed that I’d doubted him. Still, I couldn’t regret leaving the way I had. If things had been different, I would have always wondered if I meant as much to him as Graves did. Knowing how much more I meant made me start to cry.

“As I look at her this night I now understand what Russia was all about and why I was embraced into the Kindred life,” my husband told our friends. “I think we all know John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.’ I understand now that it was a test for me and Chris, a test of faith and love. I am Kindred, therefore I shall not perish. And with Chris by my side I will have everlasting love.”

He turned to me and took my hand, pulling me to my feet beside him. “I now understand my place in this world. It is to stand by your side and love you better than anyone else can. Christina Joanne Kline, I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my being.”

Those simple words made me cry in earnest as he kissed me gently. He pulled me into his arms and I held onto him, more grateful to God in that moment than I had ever been in my life.


	7. Gifts

_Trapped in between heaven and hell_   
_He knows all the secrets and don’t want to tell_   
_ Concrete Blonde - The Beast   
_

NOT LONG AFTER the toast, everyone began to mingle. This was the third night at the holding for most of the guests, and they knew each other well enough by now for there to be no awkward silences.

I spent a good half-hour talking about Thaumaturgy with Cormac before Jason came over to lead me away.

“No business tonight,” he reminded me with a smile.

It wasn’t too long after that I noticed something strange. Stephen and Mikael were moving quickly toward the baby, and they were both in Glabro form, the one that is larger than human, but not quite as frightening as Crinos.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked Stephen as he passed close to us.

“Something...” he paused to sniff the air, then added, “something bad is approaching.”

“Could you be a little more vague?” I asked tersely. If something bad was coming, we needed to know what it was so we could fight it.

“From where?” Jason questioned.

“It’s coming from outside the holding,” Stephen told him. “I believe it’s an unseelie.”

I knew the unseelie were mischievous fairies, which was bad. I had no idea why one would be coming this way, but it didn’t really matter. I turned away from the gathering and pulled up the hem of my dress to reach the Glock 17 I had strapped to my thigh. When I straightened, Jason was grinning at me.

Everyone had gathered near Lena and Christopher except Brenda and Antonio, who were off near the house talking. Lena was handling herself okay, but I could tell she was worried about what was going on. All of them had at least one gun pulled, except Eliza who was holding a large knife in one hand and a wooden stake in the other. No one was surprised when the werewolves shifted to Crinos.

“Obviously something is bothering you?” Jason asked softly.

“Satyr,” Steven growled, very much prepared to fight.

“Chris, where’s your brother?” my new husband asked me. When I pointed in his direction, Jason said to him, “Do you know what’s going on?”

Robert looked at him oddly. “There’s a satyr coming.”

“Other than that,” Jason replied impatiently. “Can you do something with dead chickens or something?”

My brother shook his head and turned toward the woods. Everyone turned to see the satyr standing there, holding a package wrapped in silver paper and tied with a red ribbon. He stood nearly as tall as the werewolves, and his skin was blue.

“How do you kill a Satyr?” I whispered softly.

Jason looked down at my wedding gown. “You have something on underneath that, don’t you?” He asked, concerned. “You don’t want to dirty your dress.”

I shot him an amused glance. “You’ll find out later,” I told him softly. “Let me see your jacket, we wouldn’t want to get blood on the wedding dress.”

He handed me his jacket as the satyr held up the box toward us. When Jason would have walked toward him, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“Oh, no,” I said firmly. “Let someone else get it.” I wasn’t about to let my husband get killed on our wedding night.

“Talon?” he asked, looking at the Gangrel.

Graves nodded and walked toward the fairy, followed closely by Estrea. He took the box from the satyr and they both returned to us. Graves held the box out to us.

“There was a message with it,” he said softly. “It’s from his master.”

I looked down at the box and saw that written across a small card on top was ‘Tina and Jason.’ “Jesus fucking Christ,” I muttered under my breath.

“I heard that,” Jason warned.

I ignored him and reached out to take the box from Graves. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the box.

_Graves took the box from the satyr’s hands._

_The satyr took the box from someone else, probably male, with weathered and raggedy clothing._

From the corner of my eye I saw Stephen shift back to Glabro and start walking toward the satyr.

“Do we want to open the box?” I asked Jason.

“I’m not sure,” he murmured, looking at it.

“Antonio?” I looked around, but I didn’t see him. “Where’s Antonio?”

Jason glanced back toward the house. “I thought he was back with Brenda doing something.”

I looked at my brother. “Robert, do you sense anything with this box that tells you we shouldn’t open it?”

“Could there be a block spell on it?” Jason added.

Robert looked at the box, but shook his head. “I don’t see anything.”

“Shall we do it together?” Jason suggested. “That way if anything happens, it happens to both of us.”

“Together then.”

I took one end of the ribbon while he took the other. Together, we pulled the bow apart.

Jason examined the ribbon carefully before letting it fall away to the ground. He reached for one seam of the wrapping paper and I grabbed another. Very carefully we peeled back the paper to reveal a box with a lid. We lifted the lid away from us and I handed it to Robert. The inside was covered in red satin.

“It’s probably not a toaster oven,” I said softly, reaching out to lift the fabric back.

Together we leaned forward and looked into the box. Neither of us liked what we saw. Lying nestled on the red satin was a severed left hand. On the ring finger was a man’s wedding ring identical to the one I’d put on Jason’s finger only hours ago. The hand was not fresh, it was withered and dried like it had been stored for years before Malcolm had decided to give it to us.

“I’m getting this really strange sense of _déjà vu_,” I muttered angrily while Jason rubbed his wrist.

“Christina!”Brenda’s voice rang out through the courtyard. “Are you all right?”

“So far,” I called back. “And you?” When she didn’t answer, I turned to see her arguing with Antonio at the door of the house. “What’s going on?”

“Just a minute,” she told me.

“I don’t think we should accept this,” Jason said softly. “I think we should box it back up and have it returned.”

He was probably right. Malcolm was just trying to mess with our heads and he was doing a mighty fine job of it. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try a Spirit’s Touch on the hand before we gave it back to him.

I reached slowly into the box to touch the hand. The instant I did so, a vision of the Crone hit me square between the eyes. His stringy hair, his withered skin, the ‘X’ carved in the center of his forehead.

I gasped and dropped the box as I was thrown backward. I landed on my butt on the lawn, and the hand tumbled out of the box to land at my feet.

“Is everyone all right?” Stephen called from his position by the satyr.

After giving me a thorough look, Cormac answered him. “I think so.”

I shook my head to try and clear it of the vision, but it kept coming back. Vaguely I knew that Jason and Frasier had knelt beside me, but I couldn’t get Malcolm out of my mind.

“Christina?” Brenda called to me.

“I’m all right,” I told them all, fighting the headache that Malcolm had left me with. I sat there for a moment looking at the hand that still lay on the ground at my feet and trying to get Malcolm’s face out of my mind.


	8. The Garden

_And a shadow like a sadness_   
_Falling all across the garden_   
_Concrete Blonde - Darkening of the Light   
_

_HOW DO YOU like your gift? _I heard a voice ask in my head. It was Malcolm.

_I don’t,_ I told him strongly.

Jason went over to the hand and picked it up. He put it in the box and glanced around. “Which one of you spooky-boo guys needed something of the Crone’s?”

_But why, Tina? _Malcolm sounded hurt, as if he really cared that I didn’t like his present. Then I realized that he was quite close, I looked around and saw him standing against the garden wall among the vines that covered it. He looked more like the Malcolm I remembered than Lord Chaos.

I stared at him, amazed that he would not only come this close, but that he would show himself to me. Wasn’t he the least bit afraid of a holding full of vampires and werewolves? _Why are you doing this, Malcolm? _I demanded._ Haven’t I paid enough?_

“Chris, what’s the matter?” Jason asked.

_I am trying to make amends,_ Malcolm told me.

Sure he was. _Is the dreamwalking the other night your way of making amends?_

_Think of it as your final test._ He replied.

_What,_ I asked sarcastically,_ you finally got your share of blood?_

_Can’t you tell?_ His voice sounded amused, like he knew something I didn’t.

I looked for his aura, searching for a reason he would be so confident that we couldn’t hurt him. There were sparkles around him that showed he was using magic, as I had expected, but to my surprise his aura was lighter than it should have been. Was he Kindred or just ghouled?

_Who’d you kill this time? _I demanded as I carefully came to my feet and started walking toward him.

_No one you knew,_ Malcolm told me.

“Chris,” Jason prompted beside me. When I didn’t answer, he called my name again.

_So what, it’s over?_ I asked roughly, trying hard not to lose my temper or start crying. _A final seeking and I’ve finished paying for something I never did? How many of my friends did you kill because we couldn’t save Lizzy?_

_It is far from over, dear Tina,_ he said gruffly. _It isn’t because we couldn’t save Lizzy, but that we _had_ to try. _The voice in my head got hard and he sounded more like Lord Chaos than I’d ever heard him sound. _Because of you._

I refused to accept the guilt for something I’d had no control over. I wasn’t the monster here. _I didn’t kill her!_ I screamed at him from my mind. _You killed Marcus!_ I turned to reach for a gun from Jason’s figure eight holster.

_He would have died from what your father did to him,_ he snapped at me. I felt him sigh and the anger emanating from him as I pulled the gun clear and he said, _I ended his pain._

“What!?” I exclaimed aloud. I turned to look back at Malcolm but he was gone. I bit back a curse and looked around for my brother.

Jason put his hand on my arm and I realized that I’d been swinging the gun recklessly. He took the gun from my hand but didn’t put it away just yet.

_You killed my love, _I heard Malcolm whisper in my mind._ I killed yours._

A shiver ran down my spine and I shook my head to try and get Malcolm out of it. I put a hand on my forehead and concentrated hard to drive him out. I had no way of knowing if I succeeded.

“Is something the matter?” Jason asked, seeing my movement. “You got bugs?”

“Yeah, I got a big bug,” I told him harshly, “and he’s either ghouled or Kindred now. I wish he’d stay the fuck out of my head.” I turned to my brother. “Robert, did you feel him come into the area?”

He looked a little confused. “I had the ward on the house.”

That figured. “And we’re in the garden.”

“Isn’t that where you wanted it?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Well, I don’t think he’ll be back tonight.” I rubbed my stomach, which still felt sore from where Brenda had shot it in my dream. “Let’s go back inside the house,” I suggested still looking at where my ex-mentor had been standing. At least inside the building, we’d know if Malcolm tried to come after us.

“What did you see?” Jason asked.

“Malcolm,” I told him as the others started for the house. “Standing over there in the garden.”

“Where?” he demanded.

“Right there,” I said, pointing to the spot, “in among those vines.”

Jason wanted to explore the spot, but unfortunately, there wasn’t anything more to find. We went inside but as much as I tried to relax, I found it almost impossible. I kept expecting Malcolm to show up or start talking in my head again.

Lucy and Michael were scheduled to leave near dawn, and I made sure that Jason and I spent some time with them before the night was over. Eventually I was able to calm down enough to enjoy being with my family and friends, but I never fully relaxed my guard.


	9. Happily Ever After

_Hours of forever, coming all together_   
_ At the crossroads of a minute_   
_ And you and I were in it_   
_ Concrete Blonde - Days and Days_

JASON AND I retired to our room around three o’clock after some good-natured teasing from our friends. Lena had thoughtfully turned back the covers and left candles and fresh flowers in the room for us.

My husband walked around the room lighting candles as I undressed and climbed into bed. When he joined me, we had the wedding night I’d always dreamed of having.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was the first time for Jason; after all he had been a priest before his embrace. Together we reached heights I’d never dreamed of before. We fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms and I didn’t once worry about Malcolm.

The next evening, most of us gathered in a particularly peaceful section of the garden for Christopher’s christening. Stephen had prepared an ornate bowl with holy water inside, and he stood next to it wearing all white with a yellow ceremonial scarf.

He spoke to Jason and me for a few moments before the ceremony. “I want you to know that I will ask a question of the baby and it is your duty as godparents to answer for the baby,” he told us, “as he is not able to answer for himself.”

When the ceremony began, Lena gave the baby to Jason. I stood with him at the font and watched while Stephen touched Christopher’s forehead with the holy water.

“Do you renounce the serpent?” he asked the baby as Christopher began to cry.

Jason and I answered as one. “Yes.”

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body,” Stephen advised, “so that you may as blessed present yourself to the almighty and your limbs as weapons of justice, for sins shall not hold dominion over you, since you are not under the law of unrigors.

“Glory be to the almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I baptize thee in the name of the almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” He looked out over those who had gathered. “I commend this child Christopher into the capable and loving hands of his parents, for there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, nor is there a bad tree that bears good fruit. Every tree is an unbiased fruit, for from thorns men do not gather figs.

“A good man brings forth from the center of his heart that which is good, for it is out of the abundance of the heart is devotion loaded. Glory be to the almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be ever, and the world without end, amen.”

Jason took the baby back to Lena, who was trying to smile through her tears. He kissed the baby on the cheek and grinned at her. “I was kind of waiting for him to say Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Gaia,” he quipped, making her laugh.

Once again Lena had refreshments available for us, and we all went in for dinner. Jason and I spent one last night with our friends before we left near dawn, with Frasier driving the cart. A few days later we were in the Caymans, having the vacation that Jason had once promised me what felt like a lifetime ago.

Everything was beautiful in the islands, the weather was warm and the water was cool. The moon shone down on us illuminating our paradise. We walked and talked and swam while Frasier kept watch for us.

I’d never been so happy. In my bliss, it was easy for me to finally believe in the God that Jason had once had so much faith in. Hadn’t He blessed us? Hadn’t He smiled on our union? Every night I thanked Him for his benevolence to us.

I knew that as sure as the sun would rise, Jason and I would be together forever, always happy, always in love.

**Author's Note:**

> My gaming group has always played fast and loose with the White Wolf rules, including lots of things we see in various TV shows, movies and books. We were playing mostly in the late 1990s and early 2000s so we use/used the editions available at that time. 
> 
> We also threw all the 'By Night' rules out of the window and created our own rulers in our cities. Some of the cannon White Wolf characters may show up from time to time, but don't expect them to be like the books. 
> 
> I'll be separating these stories both by character and by city, so some stories may be listed under multiple Series under my profile here on AO3. 
> 
> If you're interested in learning more about our world 'After Dark' please visit my website at www.whendarknessfalls.net.


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